Greater packaging density of integrated circuits (“ICs”), higher performance, and lower cost are ongoing goals of the computer industry. Semiconductor package structures continue to advance toward increasing density of components that are packaged therein. This is in response to continually increasing demands on information and communication products for ever-reduced sizes, thicknesses, and costs, along with ever-increasing performance.
These increasing requirements for density are particularly noteworthy, for example, in portable information and communication devices such as cellular phones, hands-free cellular phone headsets, personal data assistants (“PDA's”), camcorders, notebook computers, and so forth. All of these devices continue to be made smaller and thinner to improve their portability.
Consumer electronics requirements demand more integrated circuits in an integrated circuit package for the increased integrated circuits content. Some technologies primarily focus on integrating more functions into each integrated circuit. While these approaches provide more functions within an integrated circuit, they do not fully address the requirements for integration and cost reduction.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit packaging system providing integration, space savings, and low cost manufacturing. In view of the ever-increasing need to increase density of integrated circuits and particularly portable electronic products, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.